Prior approaches to articulating aiming supports for firearms and photographic equipment involve a rest which is placed upon a flat surface, such as a shooting bench, or on the ground and then leveled with adjustable feet so as to insure a flat and stable shooting platform for the marksman.
Tree stand mounted rests work via the same principle, while being attached to the tree stand in some way, and include a pivot enabling the marksman to move within a certain range while maintaining a steady shooting position.
Some of the prior art includes:                U.S. Pat. No. 6,637,708 (Peterson) discloses an aiming support apparatus dependable from a central portion of a shooting platform is provided. The apparatus includes an arm having a base and an extension selectively extendible from a free end of the arm base. The arm extension includes a socket adapted to receive a shooting staff. The arm base is suspended from a bracket assembly for pivot motion about a pivot axis. The bracket assembly is affixable to the shooting platform so as to substantially underlay a shooter positioned thereon, the socket being swingingly positionable beyond a perimeter of the shooting platform in response to a marksman's torso motions in furtherance of pursuit of a scoped target.        U.S. Pat. No. 8,393,106 (Cauley; et al.) discloses shooting rests having elevation adjustment assemblies are disclosed herein. One embodiment of the disclosure, for example, is directed to a shooting rest for supporting a firearm having a buttstock spaced apart from a forestock. The shooting rest includes a first base portion carrying a first support for supporting the buttstock and a second base portion coupled to the first base portion and carrying a second support for supporting the forestock.        U.S. Pat. No. 8,356,442 (Potterfield; et. al.) discloses adjustable shooting rests and shooting rest assemblies are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a shooting rest includes a rest assembly for supporting a forestock of a firearm. The rest assembly includes a base member and first and second upright members extending from the base member. A position of each of the first and second upright members is independently adjustable with reference to the base member. The shooting rest also includes a support assembly coupled to the rest assembly to move the rest assembly in a first direction and in a second direction.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,099 (Kervin) discloses a truck mountable shooting rest that includes an attachment structure that is attachable to the bed wall of a pickup truck and a rifle support structure that is adjustably positionable by the user with respect to the attachment structure. The attachment structure includes a deformable friction insert sized to deformably friction fit into a bedwall hole of a pickup truck bedwall, a stop block formed at an end of the friction insert, and a support rod passageway formed through the friction insert and the stop block.        
What is needed is a portable, lightweight, easy to use articulated aiming support which is attachable to a tree stand or other elevated platform, giving the user the ability to acquire targets from a variety of locations, while enabling the user to maintain steady aim, increasing the likelihood of hitting the desired target or of capturing high quality photographic images.